Michael Phelps, right, and Ryan Lochte show off their gold (Phelps) and silver medals after the men's 200m individual medley final during the London Olympics. / Andrew P. Scott, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY

Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte were friendly rivals in the pool at the 2012 London Olympics. Phelps has since moved on with his life, leaving his competitive swimming days behind him.

But he thinks Lochte's new reality TV show, called What Would Ryan Lochte Do? could be cool. The show is scheduled to debut in April on E!. It will follow Lochte as he parties, trains in the pool and works on his fashion line.

Phelps hasn't been following the news of Lochte's television career.

"To be honest, I know nothing about it," Phelps told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday when asked about Lochte's new gig. "Somebody asked me about it the other day, and I think one of the cool things about it I guess you could say is that it's the first type of thing like this the sport has ever seen.

"A goal of mine in the sport was always to change the sport and take it to a new level, and obviously it has changed a lot in the last 12 to 13 years. The only way for it to grow even more is doing things kind of outside of the box and doing things nobody has ever seen before. So I think in that way, Ryan and I have talked a little about it right after the Olympics, and I just said you have to do things differently, you can't do things like everybody else did.

"That's something that I've always done, that's something that for me I like to do and want to continue to try to change the sport even though I'm not competing anymore."